


Joe Liebgott and the Power Men of Mongo

by warmommy



Category: Band of Brothers
Genre: F/M, Flash Gordon - Freeform, Fluff, German Character, Guilt, Hanukkah, Jewish Characters, Jewish Holidays, Joe Liebgott's Colourful Language, Nurse Character, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Paradigm Shift, Tumblr Prompt, slight angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-11
Updated: 2019-04-11
Packaged: 2020-01-11 22:06:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18433040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/warmommy/pseuds/warmommy
Summary: A sweet, fluffy story about the world's cutest paratrooper swallowing his own foot, cursing a lot, and falling in love with a woman he wrongfully thought his enemy.Based on this Tumblr request: yes help can you please please write something about liebgott falling for a german nurse? I live off angst and ur writing thanks so much, I bow before your talent.





	Joe Liebgott and the Power Men of Mongo

Not a goddamn thing made a difference to him about that Kraut nurse, that fucking Hun bitch. Joe saw her working with the Red Cross–not the Nazi one, although he had no fucking idea how or why she came to work with the Allied Red Cross–from time to time. It seemed fantastical to him, that he should see the same nurse in so many different places, but maybe it seemed fantastical to her, too, to see the same American Jew staring her down every single time.

He never did say anything to her, but he never did trust her, either. He was a real wiseass, elbowing Johnny to see how many cigarettes it’d take to get a blowjob out of her, telling Lip she had to be some sort of a spy.

Nothing made one goddamn bit of difference to him, except for the glint of gold around her neck. It caught his eye as he raised a cigarette to his lips, and, when he squinted to make out the shape, his curiosity sparked, there shimmered the heavenly shape of the Star of David. The cigarette slipped from between his fingers and down to the slick mud at his feet. 

What a difference a thin piece of metal could make.

For twenty-seven minutes exactly, Joe chatted with her. He introduced himself, spoke her native language because he understood it himself, and they spoke about their families. 

 _Gone_ , that was how she described them. 

Such a sunny face on such a sad story. Joe left when he was called away and had dreams of yellow flowers and red crosses. 

Through some miracle (probably miracles), Joe kept seeing Elisheba everywhere a Red Cross popped up. When Johnny asked how many Lucky Strikes it  _did_ take to pry her legs open, Joe wasn’t laughing. 

It was the third day of Hanukkah when he got to Belgium, or so Joe thought, so far as he could remember. He wondered when was the last time Elisheba was able to celebrate the Festival of Lights. If he wasn’t wrong, it would start on the tenth, this year, and–damn, what a ridiculous train of thought. What was he going to do, buy her a dishtowel that said ‘I Love You A Latke’?

On the sixth day of Hanukkah, it was his turn to help Roe scrape together whatever meagre supply of bandages and morphine (and goddamn, hopefully scissors) possible. He heard a laugh, and it was Elisheba.

Joe didn’t think about it, much, just took one of his most prized possessions from his bag along with a pack of Wrigley’s and walked up to where she stood. When the other person  _finally_ fucked off out of there, he smiled at Elisheba and held it out to her. “Fröhliches Hanukkah, Eli.”

That was when Joseph Liebgott realised he was just a cab driver from San Francisco, holding out a battered copy of  _Flash Gordon and the Power Men of Mongo_ and some fucking spearmint gum to a woman he’d spoken of brutally in the past. Now she was always on his fucking mind, but even if he was on hers, he didn’t deserve to be, not with what an utter fuck weasel he’d been, even if she didn’t know about it. Stupid goddamn fucking fuck–

A soft little gasp interrupted the rapid-fire flow of self-condemnation in his head.

“Liebling,” she said, and it always made him smile, every fucking time, in front of anybody, it didn’t matter. She was smiling, too, her fingertip tracing the illustration on the front cover.

“Sorry it ain’t new,” he said, reminding himself she wanted to improve her English, so had asked him to speak it with her. “I just figured, y’know. Lonely time of year.” God, what the fuck was he fucking doing? Shit, of course it was a lonely time of year for her, her family had all been killed or were missing. Shit, shit, fuck, goddamn it,  _shit–_

“It is,” Elisheba confirmed softly. Her hand was so gentle on his own, he remembered it wasn’t made just for killing. “It has been very much time since last I received a gift. I have not ever even seen a Flash Gordon before! Can you tell me of Mr Gordon?”

He tried not to smile too big. “Ja, das ist gut. Shit! I mean, Scheiße! I mean, sorry, fuck, I just– _fuck_ –I’m trying not to talk bad around you, damn it, I swear to god.”

“God is here today,” she said nonchalantly, and took his hand to lead him over to a stool hardly big enough for two people to sit on, but they managed. She opened the book of comics up over their knees.

She wanted to read Flash Gordon with him, and it was a better Hanukkah present than he could remember getting in a long time. 


End file.
